Grow An Organic Garden Like An Expert

If you wanted to put your shovel in the ground and start gardening today, would you really know what to do? There is actually a lot more that goes into organic gardening than simply planting a seed and watching it grow. To gather the knowledge necessary to grow your produce, here are some helpful tips and tactics.

Organic gardening means trying to grow plants as naturally as possible without the use of chemicals. So when the time comes to kill harmful, plant-eating insects, try planting a few flowers in your vegetable garden. The flowers will attract beneficial insects that naturally kill the harmful ones. These beneficial insects perform other valuable services like pollination as well as pest control. If you choose something particularly beautiful, you may be able to sell them to your local florist for their bouquets (even in small numbers)

Coffee grounds and leftover coffee can be used to repel slugs. If you have an issue with slugs in your garden, you can repel them effectively with coffee. You can sprinkle coffee grounds on the soil around your plants or use leftover coffee in a spray bottle to spray the slugs directly.

Manage your garden hose to prevent frustration. Garden hoses, especially longer or heavy duty ones, can become unwieldy and annoying when you have to drag them around the garden, all twisted up. Invest in a portable hose reel or a stationary one, depending on your garden configuration, to more easily manage your garden hose and make storing it fast and easy.

Integrate low-growing strawberries into your yard’s landscape. Instead of setting aside fruit plants in a separate area, choose strawberries, such as alpine varieties, to use a ground cover that doubles as a fruit garden. These spreading, low-growing plants look attractive and grow well in areas that have a lot of sunshine.

Regulate how often you revitalize your soil based on your planting season. During a very long season, it might require you to fertilize the ground more than once. It’s important to give your plants the proper nutrients to grow and remember that as plants grow the nutrients within the soil slowly diminish. Having the correct amount at the correct time will promote your harvest to grow to its maximal size.

Carefully consider the location you choose to plant trees. Remember that your trees will likely get huge. Make sure trees are not planted too close to any structure or foundation. The costs involved, to remove a tree and roots that have gotten into your structures, can be astronomical. This will be easy to avoid with proper planning.

Stay shallow in the soil when you are working it. You do not need to break your back digging deep in your organic garden. Keep your depth to an average of six inches. Nearly eighty-five percent of all plant roots only require the top six inches of soil. That should make your work easier.

In your organic garden, try using floating row covers to prevent moths from laying eggs on your plants. Floating row covers, which are made from lightweight material that has been specially designed to allow light and water to penetrate it, can be used as an effective cover for your plants to stop moths from laying eggs. This helps to protect your plants from caterpillar damage later in the growing season.

Over-watering plants can be counterproductive, as too much water, reduces plants’ ability to absorb nutrients from the surrounding soil. Before heading out to water your plants, check the weather to see if rain is included in the immediate forecast. Depending on the weather, you might want to skip watering for the day.

Flowers

Tend to your garden a few steps at a time. A garden requires ongoing maintenance and becomes a big time drain if you let things pile up until the weekend. Stop by the garden for a few minutes each day and deadhead some flowers while you’re waiting for dinner to cook or pull a few weeds while watching the kids play.

Fill your gardens with flowers. You shouldn’t spend too much time and energy planting annual types of flowers as they will only last one season. Keep these types in a limited area of your garden. For larger areas, go with perennials. That way you will have flowers again next year.

This is a very easy organic gardening tip! Stick to native plants, grasses, flowers and bushes when you plan out your landscape. Plants that are already pre-programmed to exist peacefully with one another in similar climates and conditions will prevent the need for a lot of “special measures” that eat up time and money. Compost your yard trimmings and kitchen waste, then use it to fertilize native plants and to help them conserve moisture.

Understanding how to grow organically will always require the right type of information, so you might as well take it from these expert tips, instead of putting your trust in some other information out there. Make sure to heed this advice and your next garden can be the best you’ve ever grown.